Kennedy says he’ll pick £5m Celtic player for 1st time tonight, looks much better in training

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John Kennedy has confirmed that he’ll be starting Vasilis Barkas in Celtic’s visit of St Johnstone tonight.

Celtic have a bit of a problem between the sticks after Kennedy revealed on Tuesday that Scott Bain was sidelined with a finger injury.

That opened the door for the Greece international who is yet to kick a ball since Kennedy took over from Neil Lennon on an interim basis.

In fact, Barkas, a £5 million signing last summer [The Record], hasn’t played for the Bhoys at all since January due to a pretty poor first half of the campaign.

But Kennedy has confirmed that he’ll be playing the former AEK Athens stopper against the Saints, admitting the player has looked a lot better in training at Lennoxtown as of late.

He told The Record: “Barkas will play tomorrow night, that’s a given. I’ll look at the game at the weekend, but he’ll certainly play against St Johnstone. Hopefully that can get him back in the groove. He’s been training and even the training has been different for him, all different to what he’s used to.

“So he’s had to adapt to that. We’ve seen improvements in training – so this is a good opportunity for him to come in and perform again.”

With only a handful of games left this season, this is a chance for Barkas to save his Celtic career.

Well, the damage may be done and it’s been reported earlier this year that the Hoops have already decided to offload him during the summer.

And good performances against the Saints and Hibernian may not mean much, but all he can do is play as best he can and hope it’s a platform to rebuild his Celtic career on.